There are many great Christmas movies. Die Hard isn’t one of them

It might be set at Christmas, but that doesn’t grant it entry into this unique club - not when Bruce Willis is rolling around in his manky semmit yelling "yipee ki yay" as he lets Alan Rickman fall from the top floor. I guess he was all out of peace and goodwill by that point.

Now I enjoyed Die Hard as much as the next person when it came out 36 years ago, but I never left the cinema humming Jingle Bells or nipping into Asda to stock up on mince pies and tubs of Quality Street. In fact, the thought it could even qualify as Christmas movie never crossed my mind.

It’s an action film that happens to be set in December. Any Santas in the vicinity of Nakatomi Plaza stood more chance of seeing Rudolph being gunned down in the crossfire and his little helpers taken hostage before he could hand out his first presents.

As action films go, Die Hard was good - and fun. It was head and shoulders above the rest of the 80s and 90s big budget, paint-by-numbers blockbusters which made stars of mono-syllabic muscle bound lumps such as Stallone,d Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren.

Willis was cool and witty - a la Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon - in his ‘ordinary guy stuck in an extraordinary situation’ story as he flew in to meet his estranged wife and kid, and ended up taking on a bunch of terrorists. The charm he created with Cybil Shepherd in the hit series Moonlighting transferred easily to the big screen.

It was also directed with a bit of flair, was packed with action , and had an ace baddie in Rickman, but to put it in the same bracket as Miracle On 34th Street, Home Alone, It’s A Wonderful Life or Love Actually is just nonsense.

At the risk of stating the obvious, Christmas movies should be about Christmas - not just set in that season.

The story of George Bailey cannot work at any other time of the year other than Christmas. Love Actually wouldn’t be half as warm and enriching if it was set in a wet and windy February. The spirit of the festive season is infused in both. They don’t kill people or chuck them out of buildings either - they find joy and love and reasons to be together.

My wife and I were at a screening of Love Actually complete with a full orchestra at the Usher Hall last week. It was our fourth - maybe fifth - year in a row going to this special night which saw over 2200 people packed the place out, and it was glorious. I can’t imagine the same turnout to see Die Hard in 2024.

The case for Die Hard also weakens when you consider that Towering Inferno - that glorious blockbuster from the 70s - was released in December 1974 but it is never, ever considered festive film.

And if Die Hard really is a Christmas cracker, how come Die Hard 2 isn’t? It’s set at Christmas, has some tinsel and baubles as well as lots of explosions, and yet even those who advocate for the first movie are strangely silent about the second. Possibly because it was rather pointless and rubbish. I rest my case.